


Girls' Night In

by anotherthief



Category: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Genre: Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21815074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherthief/pseuds/anotherthief
Summary: While the boys are away, the girls will... drink a lot of wine, eat junk food, and have a low-key grand ole time.
Relationships: Harriet Hayes & Jeannie Whatley, Harriet Hayes & Jordan McDeere, Jeannie Whatley/Andy Mackinaw, Jordan McDeere/Danny Tripp, Matt Albie/Harriet Hayes
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Girls' Night In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celaenos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celaenos/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this treat! Happy Holidays!

**Friday**

“Don’t let him fall in the lake.”

“I may shove him in the lake if he keeps primping any longer.”

“ _Danny.”_

“Alright, alright. You’re worse than Jordan.” Danny bounces on the balls of his feet. Then, pacing in the direction of the stairs, hollers, “MATTHEW, C’MON LET’S GO.”

Harriet just smiles and shakes her head. The boys’ trip is already getting off to a fine start. But really, camping? Three days in the woods is surely not what Matt’s therapist had in mind when he encouraged him to spend more time outside and less at the office. More likely the therapist meant a walk around the park or hitting up the golf course. It shouldn’t be so surprising though that this is how Matt’s finally decided to follow through on the advice. The show is on summer hiatus, she just spent the last two weeks in Vancouver shooting a tv movie, and as a rule of thumb Matt should not be left to his own devices.

“Hey, will you do me a favor while we’re gone.” Danny says with an impatient glance to his watch. They still have to pick up Tom, Simon, and Cal before hitting the road.

“Depends. What’s the favor?"

“Jordan has the thing tonight, but she’s just gonna be home with Becca tomorrow. Will you go keep her company? After Becca goes down for bed, Jordan’s liable to work the rest of the evening otherwise.”

“You want me to babysit your wife? Danny, you don’t think that’s a bit patronizing?”

Danny gestures vaguely. “She likes you and it’ll be good for her to have girl time with someone whose vocabulary includes more than five words.”

Harriet stares at him.

Danny stares back.

Finally, with a long suffering sigh, “I promise not to let Matt fall in the lake.”

“Deal.”

They shake on it.

  
  


\---

  
  


**Saturday**

“So Danny’s going to be in trouble, provided he actually returns from the wilderness. But that doesn’t explain why you brought Jeannie with you.”

“Hey, now. I can leave.” Jeannie walks back into the room holding a bowl of popcorn. She takes a seat on the couch and pops a few pieces of popcorn in her mouth. “But I’m taking the popcorn with me.”

“That’s not what I -” Jordan starts but then sort of peters out watching Jeannie lean back and start scrolling through the tv channels with the remote, clearly not intending to go anywhere anytime soon.

Harriet merely rolls her eyes. “She’s here because she won’t go home.”

“ _Chooses_ not to go home. I choose not to go home at this time, thank you very much.”

“Oh yes, because that’s so very different from what I just said.”

“Yes -” Jeannie moves the popcorn bowl to her other side when Harriet tries to steal a handful of popcorn “- it is.”

“Real mature.” Harriet directs at Jeannie, then turns back to Jordan. “She and Andy are in a fight. We had lunch and she’s been following me around ever since. So, instant girls’ night.”

Jordan seems amused by their exchange but like she’s not quite sure if she’s supposed to be. She opts not to comment on it. “And you brought wine?”

“Yes, right. You wanna show me where the corkscrew and glasses are?” Harriet stands and Jordan follows her as they move towards the kitchen. They leave Jeannie still scrolling through channels. Harriet grabs a handful of popcorn as she passes. Jeannie grumbles something incoherent as they turn the corner and start down the hallway.

-

“So what do we think are the odds the boys actually make it through the weekend and return home without incident.” Jordan wonders out loud after they’ve been there long enough for the shadows on the wall to get long. By now, they’re onto the second bottle of wine. “Should I be upping the life insurance policy on my husband instead of watching Jeannie paint your nails?”

Harriet chuckles. Jeannie fusses. “Stop moving.” Jeannie’s highly focused on making smooth even lines of glittery hot pink nail polish on Harriet’s index finger. When Harriet had realized that Jeannie was intent on tagging along to Jordan’s, she’d brought her with her to buy the wine and popcorn. Jeannie picked up trashy magazines and nail polish in the grocery store, insisting they were essential for any good girls night in.

“Probably.” Harriet smirks.

“How’d you get to be so good at this?” Jordan asks Jeannie, inspecting her own freshly painted nails.

Jeannie doesn’t look up, moving on to the next hand. “I worked as a nail technician before acting paid the bills.”

“Nice. What about you, Harriet?”

“Oh, a lot of things. The usual. Waited tables, that sort of thing.”

“For two days.” Jeannie chirps.

Harriet makes a face. Jordan grins. “What happened?”

“She dropped an entire tray of glasses and they fired her.”

“Thank you for that lovely reminiscence.”

“Hey, you’re the one who said you waited tables. Counselor, am I right?”

Jordan appears to bite back a laugh. “I’m not a lawyer, but yes.”

Jeannie has an air of smugness as she finishes Harriet’s last finger, sharing a conspiratorial glance with Jordan.

“I don’t think I like the two of you teaming up on me.” Harriet mutters, feeling any semblance of control she had over this situation slipping away. She is the common thread between these two, but she’s quickly losing the upper hand.

“Okay well then what did you do?” Jordan asks with a glance back to Jeannie who inclines her head, making sure Jordan knows there’s a story. Harriet sighs deeply, annoyed. This was not part of the bargain when she told Danny she’d come over here.

“Well, I worked as a receptionist at an insurance office for a while, but that’s not what Miss Priss over there wants me to tell you about.” Harriet shoots Jeannie a look. “I was an entertainer at kids’ birthday parties.”

“And how did you entertain the small children?” Jeannie prompts, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“I dislike you.” Harriet says, nudging Jeannie with her foot. “I did characters.”

“Like the people in the animal suits?” Jordan’s eyes sparkle with amusement.

“Yes. I was a lion, Minnie Mouse, and -”

“Cinderella! She was a literal freaking Disney princess.” Jeannie claps her hands together.

“I don’t know why you get such delight out of this story.” Harriet sighs, utterly exasperated.

“Because you turn eight shades of red.”

“Do not.” Harriet insists even as her cheeks grow increasingly warm.

“Do too.”

The bickering continues for several minutes. Jordan wisely ignores them in favor of ordering pizza.

-

Jeannie smashes the button on the side of her cell phone to silence the rattling. It takes her a couple tries. They’ve finished the second bottle of wine and are onto the third even though Harriet and Jeannie are the only ones still drinking. Jordan begged off as she has to be up early with Becca.

“You and Andy don’t live together, so why is it you won’t go home?” Jordan asks or perhaps just ponders out loud, still a little buzzed after all. She chunks the crust of her pizza back into the box.

“Because then I might actually answer the phone, and I’m not ready to talk to him.” Jeannie flips a magazine page with more vigour than she probably intended and the page rips a bit.

“And you won’t tell us why you’re mad at him.” Jordan prods.

“Nope.” Jeannie flips another page, this time without ripping it.

Harriet watches them go back and forth for several minutes, enjoying watching someone else pester Jeannie for a change. It’s usually her job, but with Jeannie’s default nonchalance, it takes a lot to ruffle her feathers most of the time.

When Jeannie stops responding to Jordan’s questions, Harriet chimes in. “You might as well give it up. There’s no getting anywhere with her when she’s this determined to stay pissed.”

Jordan cocks her head to the side, measuring Jeannie up. “Fine. If you won’t tell us what he did, will you tell us how long you plan to leave him in the dog house?”

Changing tactics was smart. Jeannie pauses mid page flip. “One week, two at the most.”

Harriet furrows her eyebrows. “That’s… very precise.”

Jeannie flips another page and shrugs, a slight blush creeping into her cheeks. “A woman has needs.”

Jordan and Harriet fall out laughing.

-

“Apparently you’re pregnant with Simon’s love child.” Jeannie throws in Harriet’s direction as she tosses _The Intruder_ onto the coffee table.

Harriet snorts. “Lovely. He’ll be so pleased.”

“You know, _Composure_ and _Runway_ , I get. But why did you pick up _The Intruder_?” Jordan asks, idly.

Jeannie considers for a minute. “I guess because it is so outrageous.”

“Yeah,” Harriet starts, “it’s low stakes. Whatever lies they make up aren’t meant to be believed. But when it’s in _People_ or _Us Weekly_ …”

Jordan bobs her head, knowingly.

“Has the press eased off, since the wedding?” Harriet asks, aiming for nonchalance but not pulling it off as easily as Jeannie can. Danny and Jordan’s wedding was months ago over the Christmas break. The press had a lot to say about them, the baby, the wedding, Jordan’s ex’s well timed book release, everything. But anyone in the entertainment business this long knows better than to read the gossip, so Harriet hasn’t kept up.

“Oh, I mean the volume has been down, but… women in power.” Jordan gestures vaguely.

“Fuck ‘em.” Jeannie offers over her wine glass.

“I’ll drink to that.” Harriet raises her glass.

“Yeah,” Jordan raises hers, too. “Fuck ‘em.”

-

Night has long since set in and now they’re a mix of buzzed, full, and sleepy. They demolished both pizzas, and Harriet and Jeannie made it most of the way through the third bottle of wine. They’ve gone from sitting on the furniture to sinking into it. Harriet and Jeannie’s heads are on opposite ends of the couch, their legs stretching across the length of it, laying next to each other. Jordan, their big network boss who commands such presence in the boardroom, is curled up like a house cat in the recliner.

“This was fun,” Jordan mumbles, half asleep.

From the flickering light of the tv, Harriet can see that Jeannie’s eyes are closed but her friend murmurs an ‘mhmm’.

“Yeah, we’ll have to do it again sometime.” Harriet makes eye contact with Jordan and offers a small sleepy smile.

“Yeah?”

“Definitely.”

  
  


\---

  
  


**Sunday**

Harriet wakes up on Sunday to a pair of toddler eyes inches away from her face. She jumps, jostling Jeannie who groans from the other end of the couch. Becca grins around her pacifier. Harriet sits up, somewhat slowly. She’s too old to be sleeping on couches, especially a shared one, no matter how oversized the furniture is.

Jordan comes around the corner. “Aha… oh you’re up.”

“Well, mostly.” Harriet nudges Jeannie, who groans again and pulls the blanket up over her face.

“Sorry, I turned around for two seconds, and well, little legs move faster than you’d think.” Jordan walks over and scoops Becca up. “C’mon let’s go finish breakfast. Daddy’ll be home soon.” And then to Harriet, “The boys got an early start back. Something about a scorched tent. Service was a bit scrambled, but I think everyone is still in one piece.”

“Alright, sounds like sleeping beauty and I should get going.” Harriet pulls the blanket off Jeannie who grumbles loudly, which makes Becca giggle and in turn then Harriet and Jordan, too.

Jordan shifts Becca from one hip to the other. “Just leave it,” she says when Harriet starts to pile plates and magazines.

“Eh, it’s no problem. We didn’t make that big of a mess.”

“Well, okay. Thanks… really.” Jordan smiles then and Harriet knows what she means.

-

Harriet drops a disgruntled Jeannie back off at her car then heads home. Upon arrival she finds Matt’s camping gear in a heap on the tile by the door, reeking of smoke and most of it quite wet. She has… many questions, all of which will have to wait until Matt gets out of the shower and she’s had one herself. Harriet flops back on the bed to wait for her turn. While she waits, she mulls over the previous night’s events. It was fun, if not exactly what she had been expecting.

If someone asked Harriet who her best friend is, it would depend on the day if she said Jeannie or not. Their history is long and messy with Matt criss-crossed up in it in ways that help none whatsoever. But for better or worse, they spent their 20s together in a largely male dominated world. Sticking together has always made more sense than not. Their dynamic, however, can be a little hard for outsiders to get a handle on. Jordan did better than most. It definitely felt like a step towards becoming real friends, beyond just being friendly when they’re around each other because of Matt and Danny.

If nothing else, based on the few facts Harriet has so far, they definitely had a better weekend than the boys.

**Author's Note:**

> A few credits/nods that ought to be acknowledged:  
> * _Composure_ is the magazine Andie works for in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.  
> * _Runway_ is, of course, from The Devil Wears Prada.  
> * _The Intruder_ is a tabloid from the late, great American daytime soap opera As The World Turns.
> 
> Many thanks to KB for beta-ing.


End file.
